Security and Privacy Challenges in Cognitive Wireless Sensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper reviews security and privacy challenges in cognitive wireless sensor networks, categorizing threats and discussing defense mechanisms to enhance network security in critical applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive classification of attacks and security solutions specific to cognitive wireless sensor networks, highlighting key research issues.

Findings

Identification of various attack classes in CWSNs

Discussion of defense mechanisms for each attack type

Highlighting critical research challenges in security and privacy

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted a lot of interest in the research community due to their potential applicability in a wide range of real-world practical applications. However, due to the distributed nature and their deployments in critical applications without human interventions and sensitivity and criticality of data communicated, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security and privacy threats that can adversely affect their performance. These issues become even more critical in cognitive wireless sensor networks (CWSNs) in which the sensor nodes have the capabilities of changing their transmission and reception parameters according to the radio environment under which they operate in order to achieve reliable and efficient communication and optimum utilization of the network resources. This chapter presents a comprehensive discussion on the security and privacy issues in CWSNs by identifying various security threats in these networks and various defense mechanisms to counter these vulnerabilities. Various types of attacks on CWSNs are categorized under different classes based on their natures and targets, and corresponding to each attack class, appropriate security mechanisms are also discussed. Some critical research issues on security and privacy in CWSNs are also identified.